Shadow
by Jessy20
Summary: Emmanuel Snape and Sirius Black weren't ment to be together. But sometimes, love thinks otherwise.


All characters belong to JK rowling.  
  
Chapter 01  
  
"Where exactly you think you're going?" the familiar, disturbing voice echoed through the Potions classroom, causing each and every one of the students turn their heads with curiously.  
  
Emmanuel Snape despised attention. Were she only given the chance, she would have reached the escritoire where she usually set without being involved in any incident. But of course he had to interfere.  
  
"I go where I want to go," she said quietly, doing her best to ignore the dozen pairs of eyes staring at her. Her classmates were scrutinizing Emmanuel like a pack of hyenas, laughing in low voices and waiting for the lioness to gush out of her hiding place. The great feline would hurl herself at the zebra, tearing her prey apart, and once she was done, the hyenas would be able to feast on the remnants.  
  
"This part of the class belongs to Gryffindor," he growled, blocking her way. "There's nothing here for you for you to look for." His black eyes reminded Emmanuel of her old governess's cat: it used to catch mice in the small yard behind the kitchens, playing with them until they died between its silky paws. Emmanuel had always been astounded to note the pleasure in the animal's yellowish eyes, as it watch the mouse struggling and squeaking in another desperate, hopeless attempt to escape its fur-trimmed confinements. She always noted the same spark in his and James Potter's eyes, whenever they found a new victim. Predators. That is how Emmanuel had labeled the two in her mind, always pitying their newfound victims.  
  
Every night she found herself contemplating witty comments she may throw back at him the next time he'll decide to humiliate her in front of the entire school. Nevertheless, whenever the moment of true had arrived, she'll find that all those punch lines she had carefully composed had somehow vaporized, and Emmanuel would have to satisfy herself with dignified silence.  
  
No matter how much she tried to avoid him, nothing had helped. Sometimes it would seem to Emmanuel that Sirius Black decided to take the Advanced Potions class just so he could go on pestering her and her brother. Severus, she thought, was partially guilty of it: although he knew things are due to end badly, Severus kept relating to Black's and his friends' threats.  
  
"Don't you dare bullying her!" Severus Snape entered the classroom at the worst moment Emmanuel could have thought of. She wanted it over as quickly as possible: Sirius Black had usually lost interest within a couple of minutes, and she would just go own, moving towards the last empty escritoire. Now, however, she didn't stand a chance escaping this confrontation without ending up captured within some sort of a fight. Her brother won't let things pass quietly. Oh no. Severus never missed a chance to quarrel with Black.  
  
"With your best interest in mind," Black began, "I suggest you shut that filthy mouth of yours-" his flow of words were cut by the sudden appearance of Professor Marcia Magnus, Hogwarts' Potions Professor and the Head of Slytherin House. The Potions teacher used to appear out of nowhere then disappear into the thin air with the same swiftness. Like a translucent shadow, she used to roam the ancient castle, almost unnoticed by its inhabitants. Her eyes, each in a different in colour, had inspired many tales, which were passed to the first years upon arriving to Hogwarts.  
  
"I suggest you would all calm down at once!" The Professor's deep voice vanquished the students' ramble and the class quieted at once. "Mr. Snape- put your wand in your bag. This would be three points from Slytherin." She approached the front of the classroom, signing the students to take their seats.  
  
"But why?" Severus grumbled. "You didn't take points from Gryffindor! It's unfair!" He glowered at the Gryffindors and had angrily sat down.  
  
"You know very well that using your wand on another student is against the rules, Mr. Snape. Next time use your head. The will be no further discussion of the subject." And with that, Professor Magnus began composing a list of ingredients which appeared on the blackboard. Emmanuel sighed, avoiding the eyes of the student who had been randomly picked up to be her lab's partner. Professor Magnus had paired the two against both of them will, and the uncomfortable tension between Emmanuel and whoever was picked to be her lab partner was an inseparable part of the lesson.  
  
Emmanuel Snape never got along with the rest of the Slytherins. Her disagreement with their racist weltanschauung could have been the reason, but then it might have been the suppression she suffered in her parents' house that left her socially crippled, incapable of interacting with another human being even if her life was depended on it. She didn't trust people: in her opinion, humans were treacherous being by nature. Something in the little girl was broken once she understood that even her own mother, could not – had no wish, in fact – to protect her from her father's fits of rage.  
  
Her father, on the other hand, used to claim she wasn't his: her eyes were too bright and her hair was too curly. Treacherous bitch was how Sylvius Snape called his wife, Imogene, for giving birth to Emmanuel. She could still hear her father screaming every night in her dreams; could still see her mother's crouched, bent form, trying to explain to him that Emmanuel had taken after her elder sister; Matilda. Imogene's words, of course, didn't help to soften the blows landing on every part of her small body.  
  
Although having shared a womb, Severus and Emmanuel had reacted differently to the cruel world they were born into. Severus chose to be bitter. He was angry at their parents, at the world, at himself, and the destructive anger consumed him from within: his anger made him poisonous and acerbic, and he had been pushing away everyone who attempted reaching for him. Severus used to tell his sister that she's weak: that she won't be able to survive in this world unless she learned how to protect herself. Emmanuel, however, preferred to withdraw; lock the door against her hostile environment and toss away the key. Nevertheless, Emmanuel did not feel sorry for herself, perhaps because she hadn't known any different reality. She was a serene, quiet girl, and always found ways to keep herself occupied: the books that her governess, Mrs. Anderson, had snuck into the Mansion provided her with a window into breath-taking worlds of imagination, while flying – which Emmanuel had practiced although her father's severe prohibition – was one of the things she loved most in the entire world  
  
The magical express train taking her away from the glass prison which was Snape Mansion gave her hope to cling to: Emmanuel dreamed about the day when she'll go to Hogwarts ever since she remembered herself. Truth to be told, Emmanuel never wanted to be sorted into Slytherin: the Hufflepuff kids looked much less intimidating. From the moment they left the train, children and teenagers were moving in clusters, laughing and talking as if they knew each other for years. Even Severus – the grim, introverted Severus – left her sight several moments after the climbed down the wagon. On the other hand, Emmanuel had know well that if she fail to be sorted into Slytherin she'd have to hide all summer long: that is, unless she wanted Sylvius to erase her off the face of the earth, the way he wished to do ever since she was born.  
  
The Sorting Hat had only hesitated for several minutes before having announced that Emmanuel Snape was sorted into SLYTHERIN!  
  
Emmanuel had laughed bitterly when she thought about the reasons she had been sorted into Slytherin. Not clever enough for Ravenclaw, not friendly enough to be sorted into Hufflepuff. Lacking the needed courage to be a Gryffindor... Well, of course- pure wizards' blood was streaming through her veins, enough reason to put her in the only house left: Slytherin.  
  
Her first night at Hogwarts made it clear for Emmanuel that the nightmare was yet to be over. The humiliation she undergone at home was replaced with another, this time coming from the girls with whom she shared her dormitory for the following six years. Those girls sensed her insecurity before she even opened up her mouth to speak. Her two roommates did not like her and did their best to make her life in Hogwarts a living hell.  
  
Their nasty comments, which insulted Emmanuel deeply when she was younger, was a nuisance she learned to deal with through the years, so was their habit to damage her belongings whenever she was missing from the room. The one thing that truly bothered her was the lack of privacy. Even back at Snape Mansion, when things went completely out of control, she could always close herself in her own room listen to music, or read a book. Here at Hogwarts the situation was different and Emmanuel felt like a trapped animal with no route of escape.  
  
She was happy that at least the Slytherin boys did not pester her. Emmanuel and Severus may not have seen eye to eye when it came to most subject, but her twin brother always stood beside her- ripping to shreds everyone who dared bullying his sister. Thanks to him, the Slytherins had left her alone.  
  
The Gryffindors, however, were a totally different story. Like the Slytherins, some had simply ignored her. Others – Sirius Black, for example – thought of Emmanuel Snape as certain kind of hobby: a mean of relieving their boredom and frustration over long hours of school. Sometimes Emmanuel wondered how she managed to survive those last six years at Hogwarts. Perhaps it was due to the fact she had been used to worse.  
  
At the moment, Emmanuel was grateful for the fact James Potter had given up Potions after his fifth year. She still the time when Black and Potter joined forces in order to make her life as miserable as possible: James Potter and Sirius Black made a deadly combination. Luckily enough, Emmanuel mused, she didn't share anymore lessons with the pair. Well, all she had to do now was be careful to avoid the two in-between lessons. Thus, her seventh year in Hogwarts might even be tolerable... 


End file.
